Many user devices (e.g., tablets, mobile phones, laptops, smart watches, etc.) require efficient layout designs and manufacturing methods. For example, a mobile phone with poorly placed components may be unbalanced, weigh more than is desirable, produce interference between onboard components, etc. These defects may adversely affect the user's experience and increase the device's operation and repair costs. Similarly, designers also seek economy during the device's manufacturing process. Designs incorporating many different materials and components will generate additional cost as each material and component must be separately acquired, tested, and integrated. Disparate component materials can also impose complications and additional steps to the manufacturing process, resulting in additional cost and slower production.
Mobile device designers have previously used Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) as a transparent conductor for liquid crystal displays (LCDs). ITO may include roughly 90% IN2O3 and 10% SnO2 by weight, though one will recognize variations for different use cases. While ITO and similar materials have many desirable properties, ITO can be expensive relative to other materials in a communications device. Furthermore, the ITO deposition for the display may cover a substantial portion of the device's surface area. Accordingly, it would be desirable for a designer to include ITO and/or ITO-like materials/structures into the communications devices as efficiently as possible.
One will also recognize that many of the images are not to scale and that the relative dimensions of various components may be varied in embodiments. The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed embodiments. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments. Similarly, some components and/or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the embodiments. Moreover, while the various embodiments are amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the embodiments are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the disclosed embodiments as defined by the appended claims.